Your Church or the Biker Bar?

Driving down the highway this afternoon and I was passed by a loud thunder. A roar of 20 + bikers out on a nice ride to who knows where. As they passed, I was reminded of all the amazing philanthropic events the local biker bars in our area put on. How come the ruff and tuff tatted up bikers will jump on a bike and ride for almost any cause while many local churches sit back and only think about whats going to take place on Sunday morning? We need to start saddling up for a cause.

The Reality not the Fear

The following are interesting statistics from the Town Hall for Hope event put on by Dave Ramsey. Take a minute and dwell on these stats then get out and do something about it. STOP THE FEAR!

Here are some interesting nuggets of information that Dave revealed while answering some of the participants’ questions during Town Hall for Hope. Pay close attention to these, especially when you hear people throwing around phrases like “This is worse than the Great Depression” and “We should all invest in gold!”Gold:
From 1833 to 2001, the compound annual growth rate was 1.54%.
From 2001 to now, we’ve seen a compound annual growth rate of 15.57%.
But even with the surge, the lifetime annual growth of gold is only 2.14%. Foreclosures:
50% of United States foreclosures in 2008 came from 35 counties in 12 states.
20% of the United States’ population lives in these 35 counties.
Eight counties in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada were the source of 25% of foreclosures.
Existing home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.7 million units in February, 2009, and only 860,000 homes were repossessed all of 2008. The Stock Market:
Investors have made money 100% of the 15-year periods in the stock market’s history.
Since 1974, the value of the S&P 500 has grown 1,250%, from 63 to 850. The Great Depression and Recent Recessions:
1938–40: Unemployment grew to over 17%, the Stock Market dropped 89%, and bread lines were real; executives didn’t fly Gulfstreams to Washington, D.C. looking for bailouts.
1974: The Stock Market dropped 50%, gas lines snaked around the block, and inflation became stagflation, i.e. inflation in a stagnant economy.
1982: Inflation was over 10%, unemployment was over 10%, and the interest rate reached 17% on home mortgages.
2009: Unemployment is at 8.5%, there is no inflation, and the home mortgage rate is 4 3/8%. The Stock Market dropped 57%, but it has recently risen from a low of 6400 to over 8000. Recovery from the Great Depression:
Those who did nothing recovered in 4 years, 4 months.
Those who sold out at the bottom realized a 78% loss. Stock Market Performance Following Recessions:
1945–2007: The average bear market lasted 12.7 months with an average decline of 30.3%.

What Have We Got To Lose

This is kinda a backwards way of viewing things but it did get me thinking. We were driving home last night from a debate between a leading atheist and an apologist. The debate was on whether or not there was a God and what evidence do you have to support your view. Well this got us talking about the consequences of being wrong. If the Christian is wrong, what does he have to lose? He lived an honorable life, morally acceptable and fulfilling and when his time passes well its over. However on the other hand, if the atheist is wrong he to might have lived an honorable life, morally acceptable and fulfilling but when his time on earth passes well he has all hell to pay for his disbelief.

What an Amazing God

This morning I was driving through downtown Charlotte and couldn't help but be amazed by all the beautiful, bright, and Shiny sky scrappers. As I was admiring the skyline, I couldn't help but notice the 3 buildings that were still under construction. They were under construction last week, they were under construction yesterday, and they still looked like they were at the same part of the project today. Now the skyline is beautiful and a work of art. But stop and think for a minute our God created the Universe in and everything in it in 6 days. Scientist believe there could be as many as 500 billion galaxies, yes that's billion with a B. He created them in 1 day (day 4 I believe).

Genesis 1:14-19
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

How amazing is the God we serve!

I Wonder... Thoughts From Carlos Wittaker

THIS WILL GET YOU THINKING.. READ HIS THOUGHTS THEN CHECK OUT HIS BLOG..
RAGAMUFFIN SOUL

I wonder.
I wonder how many people, if we actually asked them, keep coming back to our churches because of our stellar Sunday productions.
I wonder if we ask the right people.
I wonder if we stopped, for a while, if people would keep coming.
I wonder if we turned off the lights and pulled the band if more people would come or go.
I wonder if we flipped the teaching time and music time, if it would matter.
I wonder if first time visitors are more concerned with what happens outside the auditorium than what happens inside it.
I wonder if the things we’ve rebelled against are the exact things we’ve become.
I wonder if church buildings will ever be used more than 2% a week.
I wonder if there has been more energy put into our Easter weekend services than our neighbors on the left and right.

I wonder with all the talk of social justice, why those friends keep walking by homeless people without even a smile.
I wonder when we will stop arguing about how to run the church and begin to start running our families.
I wonder how disrespected my dad feels by my generation of preachers saying his way is the wrong way.
I wonder how disrespected my generation of preachers will feel when our kids say our way is the wrong way.
I wonder when chenis envy will be replaced with prayer for others to succeed.
I wonder if churches without buildings will ever realize how good they have it.
I wonder when church planting became an industry.
I wonder if we know that our opinions are just that, opinions.
I wonder if those who say my church is an inch deep and a mile wide know that they would actually drown in the inch we provide.

These are the things I wonder.
Los

(Carlos Wittaker)

Who is our Chairs?

Watch this creative video. It might just convict you next time your sitting in church and there is an empty chair next to you, Who's soul could this chair be?

Chew On This

If Jesus ever gave us a command He could not enable us to fulfil, He would be a liar; and if we make our inability a barrier to obedience, it means we are telling God there is something He has not taken into account. Every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God. Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.
-Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers is a little deeper than my intelect can handle but what I gathered from this is that I have no excuse why I don't proclaim the grace of God to everyone. It is in my weakness & inability that the Lord will take. Less of me and more of Him.

Wholehearted Love

To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid big "sins"- is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?
- Francois Fenelon, The Seeking Heart

Crazy Love

Just picked up a copy and can't get through the first chapter. Wow is it amazing so far. Im just into the first few pages and He has exploded my Love for Christ. I mean I have never picked up a book before where the first few pages of the first chapter have had such a mind blowing change in perpective. I cant wait to work my way through the book.

Raw Faith

When times get tough or people persecute us does are faith stay raw and real or do we wither and hide. It is in the tough time people will see if what we have is raw faith or just another religion. It's in these times they will see if our faith is real and changes someones eternity or just another fad that will pass when something tough happens. Only now is when people will see if what you believe is real.

Talk About Marketplace Ministry

Now this is marketplace ministry. I don't know him personaly but I can tell from his lyrics that this isn't just a day job. He is in the streets using his story to minister to those in need. What if we were to stand up, get out & meet the lost where they are?

Its Not About the Bunny

That's a pretty funny and clever statement I saw on a T-shirt for purchase on C28that honestly the first time I saw it i laughed and said isn't that the truth. However, over the past couple days I haven't been able to get those words out of my head. As we all celebrate Easter next Sunday let's take the time and think how amazing our God is. The whole premise to our Salvation rests on the fact that our Savior did not just die like all the 'prophets' but HE ROSE AGAIN! It's great to celebrate and have a good time with Easter baskets, egg hunts, and stories of little bunny foo foo. I'm completely not against that. But lets be real. We are celebrating the pinnacle of our Faith. That salvation through the cross and Christ's Resurrection has saved us from our stories of death & despair and given us hope and redemption. It's only through this that our lives are changed. So this Easter don't let it be just another Sunday, praise Him like you have never praised before.

Bringing The Hope to New Hope

Looks like were going to be Hosting a live broadcast of this event at New Hope Christian Fellowship . Bringing anyone and everyone you know!

Shopping Sprees & The Holy Spirit

click on picture to enlarge and view what C28 is all About. This is one of the most amazing and unique retail business models that hits right at the heart of marketplace ministry.

Christian tee shirts from NOTW

It's Not About Sunday Mornings

Amos 5:21-24 (The Message)
21-24"I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want.

We must us our unique stories so that injustice will have a voice, so that we can fight for fairness. Our gifts and talents shouldn't be hidden within the walls of our church building, but should be poured out into the surrounding streets.

We Must Become Part of the Revolution!

Become Part of the Revolution Here

Jesus Wants the Rose!!!

So Im new to this blogging thing and I hope this isn't a blogging no no but i couldn't resist. This is a post from my brother-in-laws blog (Listed to the right under blogs I follow). He is an amazing blogger and I hope to some day be as good as he is. However, Matt Chandler hits the nail on the head.

Matt Chandler:
During my freshman year of college, I sat next to a 26-year-old single mother trying to get her degree. We began a dialogue about the grace and mercy of Christ in the cross. Some other guys and I would go over and babysit her child and try to talk with her. A friend of mine was in a band playing in the area and we invited her to hear him. She agreed. She thought it would be a concert. I knew better. It was shady and she agreed to come.
The minister got up and said, “Today I want to talk to you about sex.” And I immediately thought, Uh oh. He took a red rose, smelled it, showed how pretty it was. Then, threw it out in the crowd and told them to smell the rose. “I want you to smell it and touch it and feel the texture in it.” (There were about 1000 people there.) He then began one of the worst, most horrific handlings of what sex is and isn’t that I ever sat through. It was fear-mongering at its best.
I’m thinking, with Kim beside me, What are you doing? As he wrapped up, he asked, “Where’s my rose?”
Some kid brought the rose back and it was broken. The petals were broken. And he lifts it up. And his big crescendo is to lift up that broken rose and say, “Now who would want this?”
Anger welled up within me and I wanted to say, “JESUS WANTS THE ROSE! That’s the point of the gospel! That Jesus wants the rose. That he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

(HT: Trevin Wax)

Would we be missed?

An Exert from Jesus wants to save Christians

by Rob Bell & Don Golden:

We have been given everything we need for the fulfillment of the story. And the act of loving the poor is an act of fulfilling, remembering; it's living our hope; it's the fullness of him who fills all things in all ways.

Its not a building, because no building can ever be big enough for that kind of grace.

The Eucharist is not fair.

Giving to those who can't give in return, that's not fair.

Serving those who have no way to serve in return, that's not fair.

Breaking yourself open and pouring yourself out for people who may never say thank you, that's not fair.

Because God is not fair. This is a God who is defined by action on behalf of the oppressed. God is about giving the good gift. Jesus is God's good gift for the healing of the world. The church is Jesus' body, a good gift for the healing of the world.

It's for the benefit of others.

For the good of those who look different from us.

A church is an organization that exists for the benefit of nonmembers.

This blessing extends even to our enemies.

This truth about the Eucharist raises profound quesitons that a church must ask itself. If our church was taken away-from our city, our neighborhood, our region- who would protest?

Only the people who are members?

Only those who are a part of it?

Only those who attend its services?

Single Mothers?

Refugees?

Atheists?

Get Up out the Pew!

So I had a long ride home from Charlotte, NC and the Lord always seems to speak to me when it's only me and the iPod. I kept flipping (or scrolling) back to this song and listening to the lyrics. The following are questions that started running through my head as I listened. Please take them for what they are worth. I just want to be open & real.
Where would Christ be if he was walking on earth today? Would He pull in to church late on Sunday morning because its Virginia Beach time? Would He put on a fake smile like everything is okay? Would He say all the right "Sunday school answers?" Would He mouth all the words of the latest worship tune? Would He be nodding off right next to you in our comfortable pews? Would He join us at our favorite restaurant promptly at 12:30? Would He put his Bible back up on the bookshelf till next week? Would He remember to say his prayers before meals & bed? Would He pass right on by all the hurting and broken people? ................................Just as I just did.

Now this is Marketplace ministry

Please click on the link and read this article about Pastor Carl Lentz. Now some might say he takes it to an extreme, but I believe that we can learn a whole lot about the power of being real by the fruits of his ministry. Check it out PLEASE. Also leave comments on the posts as I'm trying to get feedback on what others think.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/local-pastor-saves-souls-hiphop-soundtrack